Posts tagged Research at Switched

Posts with tag research

At Last, US Folks Send More Text Messages Than Europeans

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 4th 2008 at 3:19PM

While text messaging continues to increase in popularity and generated revenue for cell providers, the average US texter sends twice as many messages per month than the average European subscriber, Textually.org gleaned from the Washington Post's coverage of a Portio Research study.

Researchers at Portio project that the end of the year will see a revenue of $130 billion generated by text messaging and expect, by 2013, that number to reach $224 billion. Also featured in the report is the statistic that the country most taken with texting is the Philippines, with a Filipino texter averaging 755 messages per month.

No matter how you slice it, the increase in the popularity of texting in the US versus Europe is a milestone, especially considering how for many years the balance was quite the opposite. Throughout the late '90s, text-messaging was popular in Europe, while US folks barely used the service. This was due to most stateside carriers making it difficult to send messages to all phones outside of their own networks. But now that someone with a Sprint phone in Kansas can send a mobile message to an iPhone in Japan, for example, the United States has finally become a nation of texters.

Continue reading At Last, US Folks Send More Text Messages Than Europeans

Weird Experiment Transposes Your 'Body' to Mannequins, Other Folks

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 3rd 2008 at 6:46PM

A research team at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden has successfully engineered an experiment in which test subjects perceive themselves as occupying bodies other than their own, USA Today tells us.

The study was designed to research technology potentially useful for robotics and the treatment of sensory disorders. Head researcher Henrik Ehrsson told USA Today, "The participants has [sic] a sensory experience of having a new body. They of course realize that it is an illusion, but they can't think it away," he told Science Fair.

With the aid of cameras, and a mechanism that touches the subject's skin and that of the second body simultaneously, the typical test subject -- over the course of the experiments -- perceived himself as being face-to-face with himself transposed into another person's body, as well as a mannequin. The visual-sensory experiment actually had test subjects "shaking their own hands."

While the success of this experiment could be a boon to disabled folks interested in robotic appendages, we suspect it will be some time before science is able to engineer fully functional, sensitive prosthetics. Let alone prosthetics that allow full-fledged bumping and grinding. [From: Science Fair]

Web Searches Increase Health Fears, Study Finds

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 1st 2008 at 11:53AM

Researchers at Microsoft have determined that Internet searches for medical information can lead to undue stress and worry, reports the BBC.

Having surveyed 515 Microsoft employees, the researchers found that subjects who searched for benign symptoms went on to search for grave illnesses in subsequent searches one third of the time. For instance, one subject might be experiencing a headache, search for "headache" on Google, find a Wikipedia article, read something about "brain tumors," and then, thoroughly freaked out, go back to Google to search for "brain tumors."

These nervy folks are colloquially known as 'cyberchondriacs,' a term whose origin is cloudy, but whose application has become widespread as more and more Internet surfers become their own physicians.

"Our results show that Web search engines have the potential to escalate medical concerns," researcher Eric Horvitz told the BBC. One spokesperson for medical Web site NHS Direct explained to the BBC, "The Web can be a useful tool to find out more information about conditions, but it should not replace talking to an expert."

And we agree, no degree of research should replace proper medical consultation. While we are all for the Internet, and the information it offers up, we also know that there's certain information best left to those trained to interpret it. You wouldn't remove your appendix just because you found a "How To" article, would you? [From: BBC]

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New Nanotech Fabric Is Completely Unwettable

by Evan Shamoon, posted Nov 30th 2008 at 1:15PM

There are some things that technology hasn't been able to fix, and the wetness of water is certainly one of them. But now, there seems to be a solution: a new waterproof material developed by Swiss chemists is 100% water-repellent. So much so that after leaving it soaking in a bucket of water for two months, it emerges completely dry to the touch.

The trick is a layer of silicone nanofilaments inside the fabric, which are highly "chemically hydrophobic" (feel free to apply this term to other, more human situations as well). It's actually similar to how nature does it: the combination of substances and nanostructures is much like that found in the surface of Lotus leaves.

"The combination of the hydrophobic surface chemistry and the nanostructure of the coating results in the super-hydrophobic effect," lead researcher Stefan Seeger told New Scientist. "The water comes to rest on the top of the nanofilaments like a fakir sitting on a bed of nails." Not our first point of reference, but the metaphor works.

Rain is in big trouble. [From: Slashdot]

TV Viewership on the Rise, According to Nielsen

by Lee Bains, posted Nov 30th 2008 at 11:10AM

Last week, Nielsen reported that U.S. residents are watching TV more than ever .

According to the Nielsen press release, last year, the average U.S. household watched eight hours and 18 minutes of TV a day. Meanwhile, an individual, on average, watched 142 hours of TV per month. That works out to over 58 hours per week, which essentially means that Joe Six-Pack is spending more time in front of the boob tube as he spends at his job (according to a 2007 study by Microsoft, the average American spends 45 hours per week at work). Mobile and Internet television usage is also up, the report indicates, to averages of three and 27 hours a month, respectively.

With the economic troubles that have befallen us over the last several months, we aren't all that surprised. With an increasing number of individuals and families struggling to buy groceries and pay bills, it stands to reason that folks are staying in more. [From: Wired Blog]

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Why You Shouldn't Believe What Wikipedia Says About Drugs

by Will Safer, posted Nov 26th 2008 at 11:42AM

The errors of omission in drug information found on Wikipedia, the online collaborative encyclopedia, can be dangerous, doctors say. While most of the details on what a pharmaceutical can do are accurate, it's the missing pieces that can cause harm – and some drug company representatives have been caught deleting information from Wikipedia entries that make their drugs look unsafe.

Dr. Kevin A. Clauson of Nova Southeastern University in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, did a comparison study of Wikipedia versus a peer-reviewed free Web site called Medscape Drug Reference, which people can use to research drugs and their effects. He and his team looked for answers to 80 different medical questions on both Wikipedia and Medscape. They found that while Medscape came up with answers to more than 80 percent of the questions, Wikipedia could only muster up answers to 40 percent. And often those Wikipedia answers were missing important side effect information, such as how the anti-inflammatory drug Arthrotec (diclofenac and misoprostol) can cause pregnant women to miscarry, or that St. John's Wort can interfere with the action of the HIV drug Prezista (darunavir).

Wikipedia has had problems with accuracy before when users input incorrect information or when people deliberately edit entries with misinformation, either as a prank or with a more serious agenda.

Still, Wikipedia's collaborative nature does allow for the community at large to offer edits and corrections, a point that wasn't lost on Clauson and his fellow doctors. After 90 days, they found the Wikipedia articles showed an improvement in their accuracy.

Still, they say for drug information people should go to medlineplus.gov or medscape.com.

So, we want to know: when you have a medical question, where do you look online? [Source: Reuters.]

Bug Sized Spy-Bots Headed for the Battlefield

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 24th 2008 at 12:03PM

We haven't even seen the Bat yet, the flying spy-bot from the University of Michigan, and already researchers are talking about even further miniaturization in the realm of robotic spooks. According to the Associated Press, the U.S> Army is doing research on Micro Aerial Vehicles, or MAVs, which are essentially robotic bees that could be released as a swarm and blanket a city undetected. The tiny surveillance robots could be as small as a bumble bee and hide on streets or in buildings feeding video and audio to military personnel.

The MAVs would help identify and monitor potential targets. The Army even believes that they could be equipped with tiny weapons for attacking foes. It foresees insect-sized bots strapped with chemicals or explosives.

We see the clear tactical advantage that these tiny spies provide on the battlefield. Still, we can't help but fear the possibility that they may be turned against us. It wouldn't be the first time. [From: AP/AOL News]

Is E-Mailing, Texting, and Chatting Online Really So Bad for Teens?

by Lee Bains, posted Nov 20th 2008 at 2:56PM

While many a parental unit is concerned about his or her teenager's constant texting, instant messaging and Internet surfing, as well as the impact such activities could have on a developing personality, researchers at the MacArthur Foundation are assuring parents that the kids are alright, the New York Times reports.

Much of the cause for parents' trepidation, according to lead researcher Mizuko Ito, is a basic confusion about how kids are spending time online. Primarily, Ito says, kids are socializing with friends, not making themselves vulnerable to "stranger danger."

Conducted over a three-year period, the study demonstrates the extent to which new media -- including cell phones and social networking sites -- have become integral to young people's social lives. Far from calling this a problem, Ito claims that this new form of socialization prepares kids for the tech-heavy work environments they will undoubtedly encounter in their later years.

If Ito is, in fact, correct in her assessment, and this article is correct in its own, it might be Facebook that winds up getting us out of this economic crisis. [From: The New York Times]

Video Games Blamed for Bad Driving

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 19th 2008 at 8:40AM

Anyone who has ever played an extended 'Grand Theft Auto' session, only to have to later get behind the wheel of a car, doesn't need to be told that video games are a bad influence on drivers. We constantly drive down the street mentally tallying how many points we would score for nailing the old lady with the walker and how much air we could get if we floored it over this upcoming hill. But leave it to German researchers and Australian law enforcement to confirm the glaringly obvious.

In a new study, German researchers claim that video games that let players drive recklessly, crash, and otherwise have fun, are causing people to be less responsible behind the wheel. Interestingly, they say driving games only negatively affect the real driving skills of men. One researcher, Supt Evans, pointed to the obvious disconnect from reality, "In games you race, you crash and it is a matter of pressing the buttons and off you go again. In real life it doesn't work that way, you can be killed." Thanks for that brilliant analysis.

We smell another crusade in the making, in which video games become the scape goat.

We're not denying that playing some of these games might actually have an impact on how a person drives, but let's be honest, people drive recklessly because they're jerks with no concern for the safety of others, not because they just played 'Gran Turismo 5.' What do you think? [From: News.com.au]

Study Shows Cell Phones Can Trigger Mercury to Leak from Fillings

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 18th 2008 at 10:48AM

We're not even going to pretend we fully grasp what's going on here, but the long and short of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences' latest findings are that cell phones can trigger the release of mercury from one's fillings. Yes, seriously. The study asserts that out of 14 test subjects with fillings, those who used mobile phones had a statistically significant increase of mercury from urine tests than those who refrained from yapping. The science behind all of this is far beyond our IQ levels, but we're a little freaked out/not freaked out, regardless.

[Via textually]

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